The invention relates to an apparatus for discharging load carriers, such as article containers, pallets or the like, transported on a conveying path, in particular a roller conveyor, and for transferring the load carriers to storage locations or connection conveyors, running transversely to the conveying path, by means of a plurality of transporting belts which circulate in vertical planes, parallel to one another and transversely to the conveying path, about deflecting wheels and form a horizontal rest for the load carriers.
Such conveying paths serve for transporting articles, and are used, for example, for transporting baggage in baggage-distributing installations, the items of baggage being deposited in containers and transported to their destinations. The term container here, rather than being restricted to closed receptacles, also covers, for example, pallets with grid-like side boundaries which are open in the upward direction.
Such a conveying path can also perform a storage function by containers being discharged from the conveying path, set down on a connection conveyor and, if necessary, re-introduced into the conveying flow at right angles. Discharging the containers at right angles from the conveying flow means that less space is required for storage purposes than if, as has been customary hitherto, storage were to take place in the longitudinal direction.
Various solutions have been disclosed in order for it to be possible for load carriers to be discharged laterally from conveying paths. For example, DE 40 33 699 describes the transfer station of a conveying path with driven transfer conveyors for transporting units, such as pallets, articles and the like, which are transferred, by the transfer conveyor, from the conveying path to a laterally adjoining removal conveyor. For transfer purposes, the transfer conveyor, which is arranged either over the course of the conveying path or at the end of the latter, is pivoted, together with the transporting unit resting on it, out of the conveying direction of the conveying path, about a vertical axis, in the direction of the removal conveyor. Transportation onto the adjacent removal conveyor then takes place by virtue of the driven carrying rollers of the transfer conveyor. Such an apparatus is disadvantageous because the pivoting operation is very time-consuming, and also because it is always necessary for the transfer conveyor to be pivoted back. The known apparatus is also complicated and expensive in respect of the rotary drives which are used.
DE 28 39 339 C2 has disclosed an arrangement for raising two tracks which cross over one another, the raising operation taking place here via eccentrics. Since the solution requires a height-adjusting apparatus, it is complicated and expensive. Finally, DE 42 08 230 describes a belt conveyor which may also be configured as a corner transfer means with two outer belt strands running in one direction and two or three inner belt strands which run between the outer belt strands, transversely thereto. This known corner transfer means also requires a vertical drive for transferring the transportable articles with the aid of the raised conveying belts, and is thus complicated, expensive and relatively slow.